Lake Cabin Entry Door Replacement — Done While You Are Away

A cabin door lives a harder life than a house door and gets less attention. If the cabin is seasonal it sits unheated through the winter, so the door and frame go through the full swing from a humid August to a dry twenty below with nothing on the inside to even it out. Wind off the lake hits the lakeside wall with nothing to slow it. Mice find the gap under a worn threshold, wasps find the gap behind the brickmould, and the owner finds all of it in May. Many cabin doors are also the lightest door anyone could buy at the time, and the frame was set with no sill pan on a floor that is close to the ground.

The replacement is chosen for that. A fiberglass door moves the least between a humid summer and a frozen winter and does not rust at the bottom, which is why it is the usual pick for an unheated building; an insulated steel door is fine on a heated year-round lake home or on the garage side, from options such as Therma-Tru, ProVia, Masonite or JELD-WEN. A composite jamb bottom, a heavy adjustable threshold and a tight sweep close the gaps mice use. Outswing is worth a look on a cabin under a covered porch, since it seals harder in the wind and takes no floor space in a small room; inswing is right where snow lands on the step. Glass is a half lite or a small lite; a full lite on a lakeside wall is a cold wall.

Most cabin owners are up on weekends, so the work happens from photos and a weekday. You send the photos, we quote, the door is ordered, and we set a date and the way in. The install is sill pan, flashing lapped to the housewrap or behind the siding, frame plumb in a wall that may have settled, foam, sealant, and trim that matches the cabin: cedar, pine or rough sawn outside, knotty pine or flat stock inside. Painting or staining is quoted as a separate line — or leave it primed and caulked and finish it on a weekend.